What You Need to Know About an Automotive Floor Jack

If you own a car, you just have to have an automobile floor jack in your maintenance toolkit. When you buy a car you will get a specific automotive jack with it, but you may need to replace it in the future if you break or lose it. If you buy a used car you may not get it at all. And you should be very careful when choosing an appropriate type of a floor jack for your car, because of safety reasons.

The main purpose of a car jack is lifting any part of a car. It is often used when one needs to change a tire, but that is not the only way of using an automotive floor jack. As usual a car jack can lift only a part of a car (a corner, for example), but there are some specialized jacks which are able to raise the entire back or front of the car if needed.

For car manufacturers scissor jacks are the most favorite type of car jacks, so in most cases they provide it with their cars. This type of jacks utilizes the central screw mechanism for raising and lowering a car. You can use a tire tool or a specialized handle (if you have got one in addition to your car jack) to turn the mechanism.

For larger vehicles like trucks you will have to use a high-lifting jack with a tall metal pole, large base plate and a ratcheting mechanism, because lifting such a weight is not an easy task.

Hydraulic car jacks are often used by car owners as well. When choosing a hydraulic jack you can buy a wheeled or non-wheeled model.

The last type of car jacks which is often used in car repair shops is a large floor jack, which operates with the help of hydraulic fluid. The entire front or back of a vehicle can be raised up with the help of such a jack.

Every automotive floor jack has safety features to prevent from accidents. With large bases a car jack will never tilt or sink into the ground. Car jacks are equipped with a special handle in most case, but many of them can be operated with a tire tool as well. There is a stop point on a jack, which is why you cannot extend it beyond the given level.

Having a car jack at hand when on the road has a lot of benefits. With a car jack you can quickly and easily change a tire in a situation when there is no one to help you or when you think that calling for assistance will be too expensive. Surely, you can use the tool for any other task (like changing brake pads, belts, oil) if you like to do all the maintenance by your own. If used in accordance to its manual, an automotive car jack is a very helpful tool for every car owner.